What does a day in the life of a Social Media Editor at The Telegraph look like?
One of my favourite expressions is ‘to have a lot of plates spinning’ as it pretty much sums up my routine – in the best way possible. As a social media editor on a fairly small team, which is made up of six editors (myself included), a deputy and a director, we are all juggling multiple platforms at once – who isn’t, am I right?
First thing’s first, our performance review of the previous day helps set us up for the day ahead – I can’t stress how vital analytics are to our strategy, I’m always about learning from the session before.
Then it’s the big meeting of the day, where editors from other desks, including news, foreign, sport and lifestyle come together with their newsiest headlines – those of which I feed back to the team and make a call on what will get a good showcase on social – every platform likes something different. And before you know it, the shift is over.
What are the best job perks about working for the Telegraph?
It’s a privilege to be able to produce social media content for a brand with a heritage like The Telegraph – with its reach and multiple platforms to be able to work with. And with that, I am constantly learning, from user behaviour to platform algorithm, it’s all happening, all the time.
Also, being part of a small team means huge responsibility. I know some publications may have bigger teams, which is great for in-depth specialisation of specific platforms, but being ‘small’ compared to others, means we gain knowledge, quickly, of multiple social media areas at once. This only builds our individual skill set in my opinion – adding new tools to the toolbox everyday.
Did I mention we get free fruit everyday?
What advice would you give to someone starting out in social media now?
To play chess and to keep an open mind.
Let me explain the former: if you lack strategy thinking this game can help you work on predicting outcomes. For example, to avoid losing in chess you’re always thinking about your next move, but also your opponents’. In social, yes tweeting the breaking news stories doesn’t take too much thought but long term overall strategy for the company’s Instagram or Reddit journey does as well as thinking about what your competitors are doing. So, creating that muscle memory of predicting and planning is so useful – trust me, I’ve definitely noticed a difference.
For the latter, keeping an open mind is vital. You may think your interest or knowledge is with one platform, but shutting off your energy to those other audiences on other platforms can only harm you down the line. Keeping your mind open to constantly teach yourself the behaviour of other media, will only further equip you and your team.
What is the most successful bit of content you have worked on?
I now work on the main social media team but before I used to work for The Telegraph’s magazine team, where social media was also vital. The Sunday magazine, Stella, (RIP) as you can expect covered a celebrity interview every week which offered plenty of social opportunities which weren’t yet utilised.
I introduced behind-the-scenes style reels of the cover shoots we carried out with stars such as Little Mix and Tanya Burr. I also helped implement celebrity Q&As videos and Insta Lives – this only furthered Stella’s reach on Twitter and Instagram, which definitely helped drive our subscriber model – if I can say so myself.
How did you get into working in Social Media in the first place to get to where you are now?
On my very first day at The Telegraph, when I was working for the magazine team, I was told the lifestyle socials ‘could do with a bit of work’. This was four years ago, at the age of 21. I wasn’t formally trained on social, but had a fashion journalism degree under my belt and a drive to learn something new. I pretty much taught myself, and liaised with the main social team to fake it until I really made it, as in, until I knew what I was doing.
I became the ‘go to’ person on the team for all things social, which helped polish my application when it came to applying for the main social media team around the corner in the office – I decided I had reached my goals in lifestyle as a writer, and wanted to specialise in social media properly. Its fast pace really attracted me. I have been in this role since towards the end of last year.
What is one thing you would change about social media if you could?
Ensuring any influencers giving ‘advice’ or ‘knowledge’ is actually formally qualified to do so.
I worked for a few months on the beauty desk between magazines and my job now, and it’s actually scary how many content creators dish out skincare advice which can have a disastrous effect on their followers – from skin burns to reactions. The same applies to advertisements – how does one know if an influencer genuinely likes and most importantly, uses the product shown? There needs to be more policing on this for sure.
Last question, what is an account that everyone should go and follow now?
The Female Quotient (@femalequotient)
It brings to light different situations, struggles and also the funny side to the world of work – I’ll never forget one post highlighting how a CEO only hires a candidate if they are nice to every single employee in the building – from the doorman to the interviewer, no matter how good the interview went.
Someone else I always enjoy looking up to is Hermoine Olivia (@hermoineolivia) she is the CEO of JS Health Vitamins, and she’s just about to launch a career advice platform called ‘CEO Yourself’ and give birth – talk about epic time management.
